Thursday, June 24, 2010

And they think they can get votes out of doing this? While apologizing to BP for putting aside 20B for the Gulf Coast residents?

Whose side are they really on?

Senate Republicans killed legislation to extend unemployment benefits, provide aid to state governments and increase taxes on buyout fund managers, saying it would add too much to the federal deficit.

The vote was 57-41 in favor of the measure with 60 needed to advance it. Democrats had repeatedly trimmed the bill in an effort to gain votes. The version voted on today would have added $33 billion to the deficit, a fraction of previous proposals, though Republicans said the cost-cutting didn’t go far enough.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, said earlier today that if the legislation failed, lawmakers would move on to other matters. He said the chamber could revisit the matter later if Republican support emerged.

“We can’t pass it unless we get some Republicans,” Reid said. “It’s up to them.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said “the only thing Democrats are insisting on in this debate is that we add to the debt.”

The impasse means unemployment benefits will be cut off to more than 1 million Americans by the end of this week, according to the Labor Department.

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